Applicants interviewed for Standish City Manager position

STANDISH — Four applicants for the Standish interim city manager position were interviewed by the Standish City Council at its Thursday, Aug. 11 meeting, and one was unable to make the meeting.

Curt Hillman, supervisor of Standish Township, Kimberly Karpinski of Sterling, Rodney Neubecker of Alger and Vicky Chmura of Twining interviewed for the position, which is currently part-time, according to Mayor Pro-Tem Jerry Nelson.

Approval of the hiring of a new city manager has been placed on the agenda for the council’s next meeting on Thursday, Aug. 18.

“Based on the interviews, we would be prepared to make a choice,” Mayor Mark Winslow said, adding that, while the council may select someone for the position at their next meeting, negotiations regarding pay and work schedule will still have to take place.

“We could make the selection, but then we would still need to negotiate with the individual,” Winslow said.

He said that the applicants had a wide variety of qualifications for the job, but are generally missing the experience with local government he was hoping to see.

“They were all competent people,” Winslow said. “I thought we would get more (applicants) than we did.”

He said that the city’s charter requires the city to have an administrator to handle the day-to-day operations of the city, though the council does not have to fill the position by any specific date.

“We don’t have a specific timeframe, but it’s pretty much the consensus of the council that we need to fill the position,” Winslow said.

Winslow told the Independent in July that changing the city’s charter to operate without a city manager is not something he or the council wants to do at this time.

Although Winslow has been helping to cover the duties usually handled by the city manager, the Standish city charter guidelines state that an elected official cannot perform the duties of a city manager on an interim basis; therefore, Winslow cannot hold the position in an official capacity.

Winslow said that he would like to see the position filled as soon as possible.